Claims Cops
Unco-operative

I read with interest Mr. Vorce's letter last week in which he lamented neighborhood problems and a lack of police and town response.

Unfortunately, his experience echoes my own. I own a rental house on Fairview Street in Randolph. November 21 it was vandalized to the tune of $30K worth of damage. The destruction was so extensive and violent that we half expected to find a body under the wreckage.

The Randolph officer who responded refused to enter the building or investigate. Instead he spent 45 minutes explaining why he couldn't go in and how it was probably not worth investigating because whoever had done it was probably long gone and would be hard to find. I explained that I knew some good local leads but he refused to take them.

Over the next several weeks we tried to get them to investigate. We had to fill out an incident report, take pictures of the scene, etc. and submit them. No officer ever came back.

Our lawyer called their office but they never returned his calls. When the site was vandalized a second time (the vandals retrieved things they had left behind), the police told us there was a form to fill out for them to watch the place while it was empty. After six weeks of waiting, we gave up and began cleaning up the crime scene.

Is this what our property tax pays for? I realize that investigating crime is harder and less lucrative than giving traffic tickets or harassing loitering teens but still—a crime is a crime isn't it? I may not pay as much in taxes as the golf course (which seems to have its vandalism promptly investigated and solved) nor have any political clout in Randolph, but I do pay property tax. I don't feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Has anyone else in Randolph had similar experiences? I think the selectboard would like to know.

Kirk White

Bethel